Process of treating sulfid ores and other metallic sulfids.



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KRISTIAN BIRKELAND, 0F CHRISTIANIA, NORWAY.

' rnocuss or 'rnnarme'sunrm onus AND OTHER METALLIC sunrms.

No Drawing.

To all whom it may concern:

Be itknown that I, KRIs'rIAN BIRKELAND, a subject of the King of Norway, residing at Christiani'a, Norway, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in the Process of Treating Sulfid Ores and other Metallic Suliids; and'l do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description of the invention, such as will enable others skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same.

This invention has for its object a process of treating sulfid ores and other metallic sulfids for the purpose of completely removw ing the sulfur.

Prior to the present application various experiments have been made to decompose metallic 'sulfids by treatment with highly heated steam, for the purpose of establishing a metallurgical process based upon this reaction/ Thus in 1836 the results of some experiments made by Regnault were published (Anmde Uhemz'e L XII). By these prior experiments one-did not however arrive at results of any importance in practical metallurgy. The applicant has now found that the reason why said prior experiments have failed were that the temperatures employed were not 'sufiiciently high and by numerous careful experiments 1 it has been ascertained that veryuseful results are obtained when the process s carried out by means of steam of such high temperatures preferably from 800 C. to 1600 C; as are easily obtainedby passing the steam through the electrical flame arc furnaces of the modern type. These experiments show that it is practically possible to use water vapors of a very high temperature a on an industrial scale for the purpose of decomposing sulfid materials so as to obtain upon the three following factors:

pure -metals, either directly or in combination with a preliminary process, by means of which is first obtained an oxid I (in this process the vapor may also be mixed with hydrogen) which is however not consumed in the process but only serves the purpose of regulating the state of equilibrium, The working of the process depends principally (l) the temperature; (2) the quantity of water vapor; (3) the quantity of hydrogen. For

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Dec. 22, 1914.

Application filed January 23, 1913. Serial No. 743,847.

instance at a comparatively low temperature sulfid of z nc is transformed according to the following equation:

Whereas by a higher temperature the transformatlon is performed according to the following equation:

ZnS+2H O:Zn+SO {-2H and by a still higher temperature:

ZnS+3H. ,O:ZnO+SO -{3H Now the very important observation has been made that the reaction takes place much faster at higher temperatures than at lower temperatures, and the utilization of the method as a metallurgical process is due to the use of very high temperatures.

For ferrous sulfid the corresponding se-' ries of reactions are:

For sulfid of potassium one has the fol J I as furnace together with the steam so as to vdirectly obtain pure metal. Or the process may be divided in two so that a metal oxid is obtained by the reaction of the vapor, C whereupon said oXid is treated with hydrogen to be reduced to pure metal.

Of course the details of .the process in the ,ing.

industrial application of same will vary acwill be distilled off first and collected sepa-,

rately.- Thereupon the remaining metal sulfids are subjected to the action of the highly heated steam or a mixtureof steam with hydrogen or Watergas.

7 The pure metals produced can be obtained from the resulting mixture by distillation or melting. The metal sulfid may be treated in a molten condition so that the process Will then turn out as a bessemeriz- The process of course should be conducted so, that the sulfur expelled is utilized as a byproduct as pure sulfur or as sulfureted hydrogen or sulfurous acid.

prises superheating the steam to substan-- tially the temperature of a flaming arc, passing said steam throu h the sulfids, separating hydrogen from t e resulting gases and returning it with fresh quantities of highly heated steam for treating the material.

In testimony that I claim the foregoing as my invention, I have signedmy name in presence of two subscribing Witnesses.

KRISTIAN BIRKELAND. 

